It's cute , I guess, and I did enjoy the 1940s illustrations and sort of macabre, Addams family-lite sense of humor. It didn't age all that well though; after a few hours of thinking about it, only the illustrations stuck with me; the story was totally 'meh.' I almost came away with the feeling that MacDonald wanted to draw pictures of Frankenstein and his disembodied hand, and then built a story about it. Which is dodgy at best when it comes to picture books.
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Cute, I guess, and very Addams family-lite. But all that sticks out are the illustrations (1940s Superman style). The story is mostly flat, and then sort of obnoxiously cloying.
In studying the Lew Archer novels of Ross Macdonald I’ve tried to identify certain characteristics, themes, motifs, images – call them what you like – that crop up frequently throughout the various books. I don’t claim that the following are particularly important or have any special significance or meaning; nor do I say this is a comprehensive list. They are simply some things I’ve noticed in more than one of the novels. Some of these appear in quite a few of the Archers. In time I hope to post the results of reading through each of the books individually while searching for these ‘repeaters’.
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